There are presently 16 computers in my 1000 square foot apartment, inculding a fullsized rack, external hotswap RAID cabinet and a Catalyst 5005. Most of that is crammed into one room, and the REALLY loud and ugly stuff is in a closet in that room, but of course the whole apartment had air conditioning running until just last month.
A number of issues present themselves. 1.) Exposed cabling - I went hardcore and rewired my apartment with cat5, in-wall, replacing the ancient 4-prong block connectors for phone, and adding four ethernet ports everywhere I found a jack. That helped things a lot. Because the electrical demands of my apartment are slightly, well, extreme, I put waist-high bookcases everywhere, and ran bundled extension cords and power cables behind them. I found a bunch of cheap but not unappealing ones at Kmart for $5 apiece. The bookcases are incredibly imposing, if I do say so myself. They're all full, either of books or CDs. 2.) Noise. *HUGE* problem. A lot of my PCs are simply enclosed somehow, either in closets, my rack or in computer desks. The RAID array and Catalyst are the biggest offenders, but my solution to that issue was to put them and the rest of their rack in an unused closet that I lined with carpet scraps. I went from being able to hear all those Barracudas while I was in the shower to having to open closet doors to make sure everything was running. For the rest of my apartment, I've chosen various tapestries and other cloth wall-hangings to deaden noise. This is quite effective but it DOES make speaker placement for my various home theater equipment more difficult. The final part of my noise-deadening and asthetic strategy is fake plants. I hit Lowe's, Sam's Club and Michael's for a selection of fake trees, branches and shrubs. I went out and hunted up some interesting-looking rocks to put around their bases. Fake plants do a great job absorbing noise. It's not that hard to wind cords through all those rocks, either, which helps with speaker and power cables.
My apartment is fucking gorgeous, if I do say so myself. Mission-style oak furniture (O'Sullivan even makes decent oak-finish mission-style computer furniture, and it's inexpensive), the trees and bookcases... it's a wonderful asthetic arrangement, and I was able to hide my computers well enough that those who visit, only able to see a couple of computer monitors and a pair of speakers, ask where the rest of my stuff is.
The only down side? I have to do quite a bit of dusting.:(
You might try some real plants. Find a knowledgeable plant person and ask him or her to direct you to some plants that can take low light.
The plants will provide extra oxygen(good for the brain cells) and some even help cut down on the dust because they act like filters for the air
There was a NASA experiment once where they looked for hardy houseplants that could live without needing too much sunlight. You might try googling for that.
"Well, if you can't believe what you read in a comic book, what *can*
you believe?!"
-- Bullwinkle J. Moose
My strategy (Score:5, Interesting)
A number of issues present themselves.
1.) Exposed cabling - I went hardcore and rewired my apartment with cat5, in-wall, replacing the ancient 4-prong block connectors for phone, and adding four ethernet ports everywhere I found a jack. That helped things a lot.
Because the electrical demands of my apartment are slightly, well, extreme, I put waist-high bookcases everywhere, and ran bundled extension cords and power cables behind them. I found a bunch of cheap but not unappealing ones at Kmart for $5 apiece.
The bookcases are incredibly imposing, if I do say so myself. They're all full, either of books or CDs.
2.) Noise. *HUGE* problem. A lot of my PCs are simply enclosed somehow, either in closets, my rack or in computer desks. The RAID array and Catalyst are the biggest offenders, but my solution to that issue was to put them and the rest of their rack in an unused closet that I lined with carpet scraps. I went from being able to hear all those Barracudas while I was in the shower to having to open closet doors to make sure everything was running.
For the rest of my apartment, I've chosen various tapestries and other cloth wall-hangings to deaden noise. This is quite effective but it DOES make speaker placement for my various home theater equipment more difficult.
The final part of my noise-deadening and asthetic strategy is fake plants. I hit Lowe's, Sam's Club and Michael's for a selection of fake trees, branches and shrubs. I went out and hunted up some interesting-looking rocks to put around their bases. Fake plants do a great job absorbing noise. It's not that hard to wind cords through all those rocks, either, which helps with speaker and power cables.
My apartment is fucking gorgeous, if I do say so myself. Mission-style oak furniture (O'Sullivan even makes decent oak-finish mission-style computer furniture, and it's inexpensive), the trees and bookcases... it's a wonderful asthetic arrangement, and I was able to hide my computers well enough that those who visit, only able to see a couple of computer monitors and a pair of speakers, ask where the rest of my stuff is.
The only down side? I have to do quite a bit of dusting.
Re:My strategy (Score:2)
The plants will provide extra oxygen(good for the brain cells) and some even help cut down on the dust because they act like filters for the air
There was a NASA experiment once where they looked for hardy houseplants that could live without needing too much sunlight. You might try googling for that.